Photo of Lacey Spears and son Garnett Spears. The 5-year-old Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., boy's death is being investigated by police. / Facebook photo provided courtesy of his family

by Shawn Cohen, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

by Shawn Cohen, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - As her 5-year-old son lay dying in a hospital with dangerous levels of sodium in his system, Lacey Spears of Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., asked a neighbor to go to her home and dispose of one of the boy's feeding bags.

It contained an extreme concentration of sodium, sources said.

Spears' neighbor confirmed that Spears phoned her from Westchester Medical Center and asked her to get rid of the plastic pouch. The neighbor removed the bag but then called police, who are investigating whether Garnett Spears was poisoned by salt.

The neighbor asked not to be named because she doesn't want to compromise the police investigation and because leaders at Fellowship Community, where Spears worked on the farm and helped care for the Fellowship's elderly residents, asked residents not to talk to the media about Garnett's death.

Executing a search warrant at the Fellowship, police later recovered the bag, which Spears, 26, would use to feed her son through a tube connected to his abdomen. The bag had been used, but lab testing revealed the high sodium content, sources said. It is a potentially crucial finding as investigators seek to determine whether the young mother fed potentially life-threatening amounts of salt to her son. in a case of Munchausen by proxy, a psychiatric disorder that leads a parent to harm a child to seek sympathy or attention.

Spears, who is staying with family in Kentucky, has not been charged and has denied doing anything to harm her son. She has hired a criminal defense attorney, who declined to comment.

Detectives in mid-January also seized food items, Spears' computer and her cellphone from the home she shared with her son. Since then, they have questioned Spears' family and friends and sought Garnett's medical records.

The call to get rid of the feeding bag took place in January as Garnett Spears was dying in intensive care at Westchester Medical Center.

Westchester County police, the district attorney's office and Ramapo police already had begun their investigation after doctors at the medical center called police and child protective services to report their concerns about Garnett's sodium level. The chemical compound can cause neurological problems and, in extreme cases, death.

Over the years, Spears had chronicled her son's health problems and repeated hospital stays on social media.

Spears told people at the Fellowship and on social media that Garnett was experiencing flu-like symptoms before she took him to Nyack Hospital in mid-January. She gave repeated updates on Facebook, saying he was experiencing seizures and excruciating headaches in the hospital, before he was airlifted to the medical center in Valhalla. He was pronounced dead Jan. 23 after being taken off life support.

Authorities have yet to rule on the cause of death. As of this week, the Westchester Medical Examiner's office was reviewing toxicology results and all other circumstances surrounding Garnett's death, a source said.